How Do I Decide Whether to Accept a Bulk Candle Order Using Quantity, Deadline, Formulation Readiness, Production Capacity, Raw-Material Availability and Testing Time?

Six criteria, each with a threshold

Each criterion becomes a ratio or a yes/no you can check in an hour. The thresholds are judgement, chosen so that a 3 means "comfortable", a 2 "fine with care", a 1 "needs a named fix" and a 0 "not without changing the order". Use them as given, then adjust after a few orders against your own results.

Where the inputs come from matters as much as the thresholds. Your largest completed run, your demonstrated rate (an average of five real days, not your best) and your reject history come from your own records; how to measure capacity is the maximum-capacity post. Working days needed comes from a plan with set-up, production, a three-day tail for the set and packing, and a buffer (the spare-capacity post). Formula readiness and testing time come from the candle's own test history (the development-calendar post and the never-skip post).

Red flags that override the score

A total can hide a fatal pairing. An order can score 13, with strong quantity, capacity and materials, and still be a refund waiting to happen because it pairs an untested candle with no time to test it. So three red flags sit outside the arithmetic:

The first two together are the classic failure: a client's new scent, colour or jar, with a date that leaves no room to burn-test it. The third turns a production risk into a cash risk. When two flags show, the answer is not "work harder"; it is a different order: a proven candle, a later date, a smaller first tranche or an advance. Sizing the advance is the advance post; whether it should at least cover non-reusable materials is the custom-materials post.

Three orders, scored

Order A is the easy one, and the reason is visible: it is a candle the workshop already makes, at 1.5 times its largest run, with three spare working days. Order B looks healthy until the testing row: a new scent needs a load ladder, a cure and burn tests before production, about 14 calendar days in this example, and production has to start on day 3. Order C fails everywhere, and the most dangerous part is not the zeros for capacity; it is that the client wants an all-new candle, fast, with nothing paid until 45 days after delivery. Wax and oil alone for its pours would be about ₹4,64,798.98 at CSI bulk prices, before jars, colour or labour.

Behind a yes: Order A's capacity and purchase sheet

₹155.85 per saleable candle is CSI materials only, buffers included; it excludes jars, labels, cartons, labour, freight, GST and marketing. Two pack choices are worth a second look. Wax: 118 kg as 2 × 50 kg + 10 + 5 + 3 × 1 kg costs ₹50,202.00, less than rounding up to 120 kg (₹50,976.00), because Pearl is the same ₹424.80 a kilo from 5 kg to 50 kg and only the 1 kg bags are dearer. Oil: Fresh Strawberries costs ₹3.54 a gram in 500 g and 1 kg alike, so 10.5 kg (₹37,170.00, 319.2 g spare) is chosen over the thinner 10.2 kg (₹36,155.20) for slack, not for price.

Turning "not as asked" into an offer

Order B: fix the zero, not the total

Order B's only zero is testing time, caused by the new scent. Two offers fix it. Offer 1, a proven scent: swap Fallen Leaves for a scent you already make in this jar; formula readiness and testing time both become 3, materials 3, and the total rises to 15: accept. Offer 2, keep the new scent and move the date: develop it first (about 14 calendar days: a 100 g bottle covers a 6/8/10% ladder in two candles each, ₹472.00), then run the 28-day plan: about day 42 from the client's yes. Only after approval would you buy the 12.8472 kg the order needs (₹55,224.00 at 13 × 1 kg). The client chooses: their date or their scent.

A third option is a staged delivery: the bulk in a proven scent on time, and a smaller set in the new scent later. It works when the new scent is a feature (a welcome gift, a top table) rather than the whole order.

Order C: decline the order, keep the client

Order C scores zero on all six and trips all three red flags. Declining as asked does not mean ending the conversation. A counter-offer that scores well: 1,000 candles of a proven design in a proven jar, with a 50% advance, delivered on day 20 (11 production days at 100 a day), with the rest in tranches once a new design is developed and approved. That turns three zeros (formula, testing, materials) into threes and makes the quantity a series of runs you have already done.

The conditional-yes reply

A template you can adapt (practical judgement, not legal advice): "Yes, we can make [quantity] × [fill] candles in [jar] in [scent], delivered [N] days from your signed sample approval and [X]% advance. Materials are confirmed for that schedule. Changes to scent, colour, fill or quantity after approval will change the date and may carry a cost. If you need [earlier date], we can deliver [smaller quantity] by then and the balance on [later date]." For a first-order version, see the first 500-candle order post; the hub's four-number feasibility test is the cluster hub.

The settling number. The decision threshold is 14 of 18 with no zero and no pair of red flags. In the worked examples that is A at 17 (accept), B at 9 rising to 15 with a proven scent, and C at 0 replaced by a 1,000-candle counter-offer.

What can move a score, and what can't

Four items tied to the worked examples, chosen on page statements, price and stock on 7 October 2026. CSI publishes no burn or throw data, so nothing here is ranked on performance. Each card says which score it can move, and which it can't.

What no purchase moves: formula readiness and testing time. They move only with calendar days and burn tests. Argued against our own interest: if your scorecard's weak rows are those two, the right purchase from CSI this week is a 100 g development bottle, not a melter or 50 kg of wax.

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